fit me into my place
by callmesandy
Summary: Peter realized MJ had, like, cute shirts. That she looked cute in.


Not mine, no profit garnered. Title from the song beestung by Kristin Hersh. Thank you, A! For the trope bingo spot "food and cooking."

* * *

"People our age are having sex," Ned said.

"Not us," Peter said.

"No, not us. But people," Ned said. "Other teens."

"Yes," Peter said.

"I hear it's pretty cool," Ned said. "I mean, I've watched porn."

Peter nodded.

MJ said, "I can't believe you admit that."

Peter and Ned both jumped. "How do you do that?" Ned nearly hissed.

"I was sitting here," MJ said. She pointed at a table where she had definitely not been sitting. Peter was sure of that. "Perverts."

"I didn't say anything," Peter said.

"Thanks for selling me out," Ned said.

"You're not a good friend," MJ said, with what could be a smile. She was wearing a cute t-shirt. She wore a lot of cute t-shirts. They were generally pretty striking and they looked really cute on her. Peter backed up a small step.

"I, I am a good friend," Peter said.

"Well," Ned said.

"Now who's being thrown under the bus?" Peter frowned. "Why are you listening in on our conversations?"

"You're my friends," MJ said, with a smirk. "I don't really mean that, I'm bored."

"I think you like us," Peter said. "You do."

"Okay," MJ said. "I do like you. I like Ned." She patted Ned's shoulder and walked away.

Peter looked over at Ned and tried to form a word or sentence around the idea exploding in his brain. Then he was being way too dramatic to try to speak. He was ridiculous. "I have to go," Peter said. "Stark things."

"You can just say Avenger things," Ned said, grinning. "It's so cool when you say that."

"Avenger things," Peter said, very quietly.

"So cool."

Peter actually got to catch a freaking jet to go north. He did it twice a week and it did not get less awesome. The jet did not have a pilot and sometimes it was just Peter in it. One time he'd filmed himself jumping from chair to chair. Ned was seriously impressed.

This time there was another passenger. A super intimidating fellow passenger. It was Miss Potts. Peter tried to sit very still in his seat. Miss Potts took down her hair and sat criss cross apple sauce in the seat. Peter did not say that out loud and he was so proud of himself. He hadn't done as well when they first got on. There had been a lot of stammering.

Miss Potts looked at him and said, "How was your day?"

"Good, good. Pretty good. I think I like my friend MJ. Michelle. MJ. Whoa, just now saying that out loud," Peter said. "Huh."

Miss Potts smiled. She said, "What's MJ like?"

"Oh, super smart. Brilliant. And pretty. She's pretty. I didn't think about that before. She's into conspiracy theories but she told me she definitely steers away from the ones founded in white supremacy and anti-semitism."

"That's good," Miss Potts said. "So no lizard people."

"Yeah," Peter said. "She's a very talented artist."

"That's good, too," Miss Potts said. She smiled again, looked out on the window. She said, "One time, when Tony and I were on one of his planes, he spent an hour cooking an omelet for me. Because he wanted to tell me something. Believe it or not, he's not a good cook."

"DId it work?"

"Not at all," Miss Potts said. "He completely failed to tell me what he wanted to say. I didn't get his omelet message."

"Okay, I will not do that. I should probably tell her I like her," Peter said.

"You could wait, too," Miss Potts said. "You just said it out loud today for the first time. You have time. I know you don't believe me. But you have time."

"Usually," Peter said.

Miss Potts stopped smiling. She said, "You're right."

He didn't say anything to Tony. He felt like he'd unburdened himself enough with Miss Potts. Pepper. She'd insisted he call her that. It didn't feel natural.

"I had a good talk with Miss Potts on the plane," he said to May at dinner. It was takeout. May was probably as good a cook as Tony.

"And then you did Spiderman stuff," May said. She was still a little testy about that.

"And some science and tech things, some helpful, very helpful things for when I go to college," Peter said. "Some training so I can be a better Spiderman. A safer, less bruised Spiderman."

"Not safe enough," May said. "I really don't like you doing that."

"But I'm gonna keep doing it," Peter said. He looked her straight in the eye.

"I know," May said. She rolled her eyes. "What did you talk to Pepper Potts about?"

"Well, you know, she told me one time Mr. Stark cooked her an omelet and it was bad, it was not good. He was trying to, I guess, show he cared or something and tell her something important but he didn't tell her at all. And the omelet was bad." Peter laughed.

"That's quite a story," May said. "You two were getting cozy."

"We were just talking," Peter said.

"Talking about romance." May had that expression on her face like she wanted Peter to tell her the rest. "Why were you talking about romance?"

"Maybe we were just bonding on our relationships with Tony, with Mr. Stark. You don't know."

May smiled. "You can talk to me about romance."

"I know," Peter said. "I'm just, you know, pondering right now. I'm doing a deep dive on this right now. In my head."

"Okay, then," May said.

He nodded a lot and ate faster.

When he was in his room, he just kind of laid in bed and thought about MJ. She was a good person. She was a really good person. She teased him and Ned but he'd never once seen her be mean to someone. Maybe she was a horrible person on the internet. He could look her up with Karen, he bet. He wasn't going to do that. There was no way MJ was horrible to people on the internet. She hated most social media. She'd never had a Facebook page. Maybe she was on Reddit. Maybe she was on something so underground Peter had no idea about it. But Ned might. He could ask Ned.

Miss Potts was right. He had time. Usually, you had time. Not with his parents or Uncle Ben. But usually. He probably would with MJ. So he'd have time to wait. And contemplate.


End file.
